In May 2007, Texas voters approved Proposition 1, a constitutional amendment providing property tax relief to elderly and disabled homeowners. Planning for the approval of the constitutional amendment, legislators approved House Bill (HB) 5. HB 5 provided tax relief to senior citizens and disabled persons by ensuring school tax ceilings were reduced proportionally to reflect school tax rate reductions granted to all other property owners.
Despite this fact, it seems that every year a bogus email circulates on the Internet, which usually begins as follows:
Please read and pass on to all your Texas email friends as this applies to all voters.
Vote in May to keep the Homestead tax cap for 65 and over, even if you are not 65 yet. If you are a Texas homeowner then this is important to you. If not, it is important to your friends who are.
I am sending this email to everyone on my email address list who lives in Texas. I want to be sure you are aware of a constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot at the May election. It is an amendment to correct an error made by the lawmakers when they voted for a reduction in school property taxes in 2005.
When the lawmakers voted for a one-third reduction in school property taxes beginning in 2006, they forgot about the homestead exemption for senior citizens and people with disabilities. The state constitution caps school property taxes for homeowners 65 years and older and those who are disabled.
The information in the email is invalid. In fact, there is no constitutional amendment election scheduled in Texas in May 2012. This issue was resolved by HB 5 in 2007 as mentioned above.
